Dear Reader:

You might remember that I got this angel painting from Ernest Lee, a.k.a “Chicken Man” while we (Ya’s) were getting him to do a personalized painting for Jackson’s birthday last fall.

Mr. Lee was so sweet and (upon finding out about my breast cancer)  added the pink ribbon to this angel I had been studying… while we went to lunch. The only thing was…the head was triangular and looked just like an alien. The first time I posted it…Anne remarked that it was a little strange (as in creepy-looking.) I agreed.

When visitors would come in the “Happy Room” I would catch them doing a ‘double-take’ at the (now called) Alien Angel with the pink ribbon. So finally…a few weeks ago…I asked Anne if she could round out the head perhaps…just a little.

Which, as you can see, she did. She experimented with adding a facial expression and making a few other adjustments… but then stopped. Anything she did ‘major’ to change the angel felt wrong. It was “perfect” (with just a few dabs of paint added to round out the spooky contours) because Ernest Lee’s vision of it was perfect.

She was right.

My almost perfect angel fits right into my almost perfect Happy Room… in my almost perfect house with my almost perfect garden.

I really dislike any kind of perfectionism… so far as having the perfectly organized house, or the perfect cabinets aligned, or the perfect meticulously designed garden….quite honestly…perfectionism makes me nervous.

If I am sitting in someone’s house…perhaps in  a museum type living room…I pray the hostess won’t serve any food and I find, myself, getting so caught up in the sterility of the place that I can actually feel my mouth go dry with fear of spoiling the antiseptic atmosphere.

Madeleine L’Engle wrote several essays and books on avoiding perfectionism in our daily lives. God is Perfectionism…”to be human is to err.” There is a reason for this distinction in God’s Plan.

In one article she wrote on the subject she added an historical tidbit that I found interesting.

“I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.” (Brainy Quotes)

…Here I go getting another book to stack in my imperfect book shelves…but I discovered a wonderful resource on this subject and decided that I, not only wanted,but needed to read it.

Because, as much as I am not a perfectionist in most of my daily life…it stops with my writings.

It isn’t just that grammar errors bother me…I dislike any of my writings that fail to convey what I intended to say. And I can be really hard on myself when I am just ‘not feeling‘  that a certain topic is being explained well.

So even though most of us would laugh off being perfectionists…if we look closer at ourselves…we all have certain aspects of life in which we really are.

After reading a few excerpts from the author Brande Brown’s book…some lights started turning on in my psyche.

For example:  We can live “perfectly” miserable, stressful lives if we “don’t let go of who we think we should be…but instead “embrace who we (truly) are.”

If we choose to live in a world where we fear what other people think or say about us more than the perfectly imperfect path God has chosen for us…this detour off God’s intended path can get quite rocky. We are making a critical mistake… we are deliberately putting man’s opinion of us above God’s creative plan for our lives.

These following quotes (from the book) made me stop and pause…

“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.”

“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?

Brown uses the term, wholeheartedness,” for the goal we should be striving for in our lives.

“Here’s what is truly at the heart of wholeheartedness: Worthy now, not if, not when, we’re worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.”

Perfectionism simply means we haven’t learned to love ourselves… as is.

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

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So until tomorrow…Let’s leave perfection to God and instead follow His guidance in this imperfect world to bring light to others in any imperfect way at our disposal. Let us strive to become recovering perfectionists, “Good Enoughists“… in God’s opinion.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My lovely, beautiful niece (Ady Grace) had her birthday party yesterday…Looks like fun darling! Happy Early Birthday! Aunt Becky is sending you a birthday “surcie” back with Ben today!